Triggering an inductive loop

[ebikeerwidnes]

My bike (OK ebike - which may be relevant as it has more relevant bits??) works fine everywhere I have tried it
Except one set of traffic light just down the road

I suppose I should get round to reporting it to the council but I never have so - funnily enough - no-one has ever fixed it

Do they normally have a single point which is sensitive - or more sensitive that other bits??

I do recall when my daughter was little we lived near Bangor Pier (North Wales) and used to walk to and up the pier quite often. They installed a barrier system to try to get more money for maintenance.
I found that the pushchair would trigger the exit barrier if I push it at the right angle - my daughter loved it
(my partner - now ex-partner - said I was being silly and childish!!!)

 

[Cirrus]

I don’t have a problem with them….

 

[Tom B]

I have the same issue where I work.

I find that either running the front wheel along the loop (along the line in the tarmac), albeit at 90 degrees to the direction of travel triggers the system, or stopping on top of the loop and lowering the bike as if putting it on the ground is sufficient to trigger it. I can now normally trigger it by riding along the lines and loop back around without much faff or stopping.

The next time you see the techs fettling the gate ask them to turn the system Gain up, that usually helps.


It makes me laugh, our lot prattle on about perimeter and building security, but you can roll under the barrier, squeeze past the edge to get into the grounds and use a bank card, key or finger to defeat the mag lock on the door. I was told off for doing it, but nothing has been fixed!

 

[figbat]

A small neodymium magnet on the underside of the BB may help (it's a trick I have seen mentioned relating to a similar issue with motorcycles). You might find yourself gathering nails and other ferromagnetic material along the way though.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Is there more of a problem with these sensors on carbon frame and stuff like that
and - conversley - are old steel framed biek better at being detected

does anyone know - has anyone ever experimented - does anyone care????

 

[Alex321]

Is there more of a problem with these sensors on carbon frame and stuff like that
and - conversley - are old steel framed biek better at being detected

does anyone know - has anyone ever experimented - does anyone care????

If they are sensing ferrous metal, then I would expect Alu (or Titanium) frames to be similar to carbon, but steel frames would be rather better than either.

[EDIT]
Apparently it is not frrous metal that is detected, but any conductive material - and with bicycles, it will mainly be the wheel rims that are detected.

So carbon frame will be fine if you have aluminium wheel rims, but if you have carbon wheel rims (even ona steel framed bike), detection will be much harder.

Also, from what I read, detection of the bicycle will generally be much easier at the edge of the loop than over the centre of it, unlrss it is a quad pole loop.

 

[presta]

Do they normally have a single point which is sensitive - or more sensitive that other bits??

Yes.

I find that either running the front wheel along the loop (along the line in the tarmac), albeit at 90 degrees to the direction of travel triggers the system, or stopping on top of the loop and lowering the bike as if putting it on the ground is sufficient to trigger it.

.....is the correct way to go about it.

If you have the bike vertical, then the most sensitive point is with the bike on the edge of the loop and in line with the edge of the loop. Failing that, you should be able to get more sensitivity still by laying the bike down in the middle of the loop.

NB: standing the bike vertically in the centre of the loop is the least sensitive position.

are old steel framed biek better at being detected

No.

A small neodymium magnet on the underside of the BB may help

No it won't.

They work the same way as metal detectors that people use for unearthing coins, gold treasure, etc, you don't need magnets, and you don't need ferous metals.

 

[All uphill]

Is there more of a problem with these sensors on carbon frame and stuff like that
and - conversley - are old steel framed biek better at being detected

does anyone know - has anyone ever experimented - does anyone care????

A couple of traffic light locally respond to my steel bikes but not to the aluminium bike I had. The steel bikes were around 12kg and the aluminium one was around 9kg.

 

[Gwylan]

does anyone know - has anyone ever experimented - does anyone care????


No, no, let me think, er No

 

[brommieinkorea]

Probably not practical for you, but can you walk in or out with a Brompton ?

There are no people gates.

 

[Tom B]

A couple of traffic light locally respond to my steel bikes but not to the aluminium bike I had. The steel bikes were around 12kg and the aluminium one was around 9kg.

Its a bug bear of mine at traffic signals, especially as i am often out and about in the small hours when there is little traffic to help.

Ive reported several to TFGM and on several occasions had feedback from an attending engineer, usually along the lines of "I've turned the gain up" (read sensitivity) let us know how you get on. One particular set of ATS has an issue when emerging from a back street almost right on the stop line you wont go over the loop, they added an IR detector looking right down on the area before the stop line.

If ever you want to know more about ATS there is a chap the posts on sabre-roads forums he's either an ATS engineer or tech or similar.

 

[midlife]

All I can see in mind is Mr Bean and the car park barrier episode lol

 

[Mike_P]

There's fantastically an inductive loop where bar a couple of houses to whom it is a benefit. means you need three cyclists together to make it change the lights on the end of an off road bridleway section of NCN67 in Harrogate. The highway engineers braincell worked enough to realise that would not work for horses so installed a push button at horse rider height

 

[brommieinkorea]

Maybe aks your employer, not random people on the net....

"Don't know what to tell you" "have to look into that" yep that's the response I get when it is mentioned. I am not looking to fix the industry stupid, just reliable trick to trip the sensors.

 

[brommieinkorea]

I have the same issue where I work.

I find that either running the front wheel along the loop (along the line in the tarmac), albeit at 90 degrees to the direction of travel triggers the system, or stopping on top of the loop and lowering the bike as if putting it on the ground is sufficient to trigger it. I can now normally trigger it by riding along the lines and loop back around without much faff or stopping.

The next time you see the techs fettling the gate ask them to turn the system Gain up, that usually helps.


It makes me laugh, our lot prattle on about perimeter and building security, but you can roll under the barrier, squeeze past the edge to get into the grounds and use a bank card, key or finger to defeat the mag lock on the door. I was told off for doing it, but nothing has been fixed!

Multiple facilities, and I am not at one daily, so I have yet to see anyone working on one. Usually I slip out when a truck or car comes in, but this gets difficult at certain slow times.